Thursday, August 25, 2016

The mayor of a German town fired a Muslim intern on her first day of work because she refused to take off her headscarf, local media reported.

The 48-year-old woman had been hired for a project called 'Perspectives for Refugees' in the eastern town of Luckenwalde, Brandeburg, according to local paper Märkische Allgemeine. She was scheduled to work for six weeks.

However, the woman’s assignment with the town hall ended long before the scheduled date. In fact, she was fired on her very first day of work after refusing to remove a headscarf when asked, saying she did not want to do so in the presence of men.

Mayor Elisabeth Herzog-von der Heide wasted no time in firing the Palestinian woman, stating that wearing a headscarf violated the religious neutrality of town hall.

“The Islamic headscarf is a means of expressing a religious worldview,” Herzog-von der Heide told German media on Wednesday, as quoted by The Local.

She admitted that the town hall should have asked the woman about her position on removing headscarves prior to hiring her, and vowed that it would do so in the future.

The abrupt sacking was criticized by Sven Petke, a representative in the state parliament from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party.